International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

It is widely accepted that education is fundamental to reduce income inequality. Moreover, gender role and gender difference all contribute to enlarge gender income gap in contemporary social world. Theoretically speaking, from gender stratification and gender segregation perspectives, physical sex difference, cognitive sex difference, and social sex difference are served as crucial underpinnings to shape and construct gender income gaps inherently. In this sense, the ultimate purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between gender income gap and education from gender stratification and gender segregation perspectives. Applying the data of Chinese Urban and Rural Residents Income Distribution and Living Conditions Survey (2014), I estimated and measured different variables to investigate the relationship between education and gender income gap. The results in this study indicated that occupational gender inequality increased gender income gaps in the labor market. This study also suggested that there is no sufficient reason to be positive toward further educational changes that would lead to large decreases in gender income gaps. In other words, if women keep their current trajectory of enhancing their educational credentials that related to men, they still encounter various barriers of gender segregation in college majors in current Chinese higher education system. Indeed, although women are educational improved, the gendered organization of higher education still maintains substantial impediments to reduce gender income gaps.